What Jains Do Not Tell You About Jainism?

Most of the Jains like to hide the key features of Jainism and talk only about Non-violence, Vegetarian diet and other food habits. They do it because most of the lay Jains do not know about basic philosophy of Jainism.

Here are some unique concepts in Jainism:

No Creator God: Jainism do not believe in creator God. According to Jainism the universe is eternal and endless, it was never created. Ancient and medieval Jain scholar monks have written lot about this, and today's Jain monks know the fact. But they do not like to speak on this issue. As most of the Jain laymen know Jainism through monks, there is no question of their being aware of Jainism's non-creation theory.

Equality: Jainism is staunch promoter of equality amongst human beings. Jain philosophy does not discriminate anybody in the name of Gender, Color, Creed, Caste, Language, Region, Country etc. Jainism believes in equal rights in opportunities. Most of the Jains are unaware of this fact.

Pluralism: Pluralism is basic and one of the most important features of Jainism. According to it truth can be judged only after knowing different points of views. Single point view never can reach to the complete truth. Finding absolute truth is not possible for human beings as any object has infinitive qualities in it and we can not get all of them due to limitations of our knowledge.

Non Possession: Among the list of 5 vows of monks and Laymen, one is non-possession. In Jainism, possession is considered as the father of all sins. As most of the Jains are business people, and so money oriented, they do not speak much about this vow.

Violence in Defense: A very important thing Jains like to hide is that Jainism permits it's followers to fight against the enemy if the enemy attacks. This is applicable to the attacks on self, family, society, nation, etc. Jainism is not for cowards. All the ford makers of this religion were warriors. Until later medieval period, Jainism was dominated by warrior communities, but later it became dominated by merchant communities. As merchants do not like to fight even if someone attacks, they never speak about this key feature of Jainism.

History: Jainism has a rich ancient and medieval history. Jainism and Jains have contributed a lot for the development of Indian culture, languages, literature, architecture, mathematics, Ayurveda (ancient medical science), business etc. But most of the Jains do not know their own history.

This all is happening because today's Jainism is a religion of money oriented people. They are not interested in anything but earning money. So they can not tell the core factors of Jainism. For them, Jainism is just vegetarianism, temples and rituals.

That is why most of the great scholars and great ascetics of Jainism are from non-Jain communities.

Being Proud of Wrong Things

Many of the Jains think that Jain community is the richest one, and 50% (or 25% the percentage varies according to the ego of the person), of the Income Tax in India comes from Jain community. Both the statements are false.

Moreover, spreading such rumors show the wrong tendency of Jains at it is against the core principles of Jainism.

There are many good things with them to be proud of, but Jains are not aware of such things. They do not know that Jain mathematics was very advanced and Zero was invented by a Jain mathematician, they do not know that India's name 'Bhaarat' was kept after a Jain person, they do not know that Asia's largest rural educational institute was founded by a Jain person, they do not know that it was a Jain to found India's Space Mission. They do not know so there is no question of telling it to others, and even few people know, they will not tell it because of their wrong tendency.

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@Saumil Jain is right enough to point out the probable reasons & with utmost humilty.

But I am Happy to know a few facts reg Jain accomplishments too .

Saumil Jain 2 years ago

Hi Sir,

Thank for the article. As a young Jain I find that many of the points you raise in this article are very valid. Over the last two years I have been trying really hard to try to find the true meaning of Jainism through our history rather than what has been taught to us. One of the reasons I started to do this was because especially the older ladies in the community started to act as if they were praying to mahvir to do something. And this really annoyed me. As did the fact that the word 'bhagvan' (in the godly sense) was synonymous with 'tirthankar' with most people.

However it is not easy to find Jain texts and many of them are lost in translation. But eventually I did come across almost all of the things you mentioned in the article. But if there are some you now of can you please recommend them.

Secondly, on the aspect of losing touch with the true meaning of Jainism, I have noticed that one things Jains seem to find very difficult to do is to completely separate themselves from Hinduism. A lot of households will be jain, but they will also have hindu traditions mixed in there.

As for the whole financial issue, I feel that financial power become the substitute for physical power for those who have not thought about it (which violates aparigraha). But then again humans are imperfect. How would you then suggest that message gets taught to jains?

Secondly, I do feel Jains are slightly more aware than you give them credit for though. It is just that unfortunately non violence and vegetarianism are easier to explain than things like the kalchakra or the concept of jiva, hence they get discussed more.

Also, don't you think taking pride in any of those things you mentioned is just as bad as taking pride in being rich? It is that sense of entitlement which is more the issue.

Finally I was taking to a sadhu in Girnar and we got to talking about the whole practice of jainism as a layman. Now theoretically speaking all jains attain to be sadhus at some point in the cycle. But most of us will be content with a life of a layman in this life. However, this unfortunately means prioritizing certain thing over others. i.e. ahimsa will probably be practiced more readily than aparigraha. And this shapes the was the religion is perceived.

So all in all, I thought that this article did hit the point on the fact that many jains do not know their history. But I think you did fail to look more closely as to why this may be the case. How do you think this can be improved?

shishir07 2 years ago

I liked all your articles Sir. You are doing a great job and hope you would continue the same!!

KenWu 4 years agofrom Malaysia

There are some similarities between Jainism and Buddhism.

KenWu 4 years agofrom Malaysia

Heard about Jain before and this religion is quite similar with Buddhism at least in some aspects.

Shailesh jain 5 years ago

jainism is best religion in this world if this religion is spread throughout the world there will be peace all over

Parasmal Jain 5 years ago

As above mentioned that's not fact of every business man some speak it out, even discuss, even aware of but as of there time limit and even without money cant survive in today's society status so they think it is better pratice on self then speech to others. Anyway good blog and write on jainism. Thanks & sorry.

Author

Mahaveer Sanglikar 5 years agofrom Pune, India

KDuBarry03,

Thank you for sharing your views.

KDuBarry03 5 years ago

Very informative Hub, my friend! I commend Jainism for their belief in no God. Most religions believe in higher beings (although that has been in great debate for so many centuries). I would have never guessed Jains would be violent for protection; however, I must commend them for that since one must be strong of mind and heart for protection. Great Hub!

CHINTAN SHAH 5 years ago

VERY NICE

Ankit Parikh 5 years ago

Jains know these theories and they don't hide it. the problem is that people don't know it. No any jain monk is trying to hide anything. i have listen all these principals in their lecture.

Rakesh Jain (rakjgautam@hotmail.com) 5 years ago

I am a regular reader of your E-mails & Articles on anything and everything on Jainism Religion and the Jain Community. I really appreciate and am very impressed by the time & efforts you spend for increasing awareness / information and knowledge of all your friends who read this.

You are really doing a great social service. May you continue to do so and include me on the E-mails covering all your Articles etc. on the subject.

However I totally disagree with your views that Jainism is meant for only intellectuals and not merchants and also do not agree that Jainism is “The Right Faith in Wrong Hands”.

You believe in Pluralism, you should not exercise right to condemn or criticize others. Let each one do as it pleases him – in Practising & Spreading the Jainism.

sadhuvedantmuni 5 years agofrom BHOPAL MP

it is amazing the JAINISM teaches non possession but jains are interested in possession. Digambers means nakedness but jains are mostly cloth merchants.it is the need of the hour to follow the philosophy of Jainism. principles of Jainism will establish peace in the universe.

VISHAL JAIN 5 years ago

THANKS FOR THE INFORMATION.......REALLY BEFORE IT I WAS NT ACQUAINTED TO THS.........

suyog kandi 5 years ago

very nice article.

Author

Mahaveer Sanglikar 5 years agofrom Pune, India

You are right, I think.....

rohit 5 years ago

Jain people are good in most cases but they are not active to spread it's principle.

Jain may not interested to spread it may be bcos they think jainism as a community not religion(i am extremely sorry if wrong).

otherwise they are good at heart but not active towards other non jain people,may be bcos of RSS related pressure.

Author

Mahaveer Sanglikar 5 years agofrom Pune, India

Thank you for reading it!

ChelseaDawn 5 years agofrom Augusta, Georgia

Never heard of Jainism before, but this article was very interesting! Thanks for the quick lesson! :)